Steadman Family

Big day with several appointments…

 First, Ben had his check-in with Dr. Foreman, our neuro-oncologist at Children’s Hospital. He’s very pleased with how Ben is responding to the decadron steroid and answered several of our questions.

More importantly, Dr. Foreman introduced us to Pete, Hope and Sam Walsdorf. Sam is a little boy who lives in Littleton, is around the same age as Ben and has the same type of tumor. Sam is in his fifth week of the radiation treatment and has just started physical therapy to help him walk again. His parents are wonderful people who shared a ton of information with Melinda and I in just a few short minutes. We’re looking forward to talking some more with them and finding a way for  our two families to help each other.

Ben’s second appointment was out at Fitzsimmons to get his first radiation treatment. The treatment itself lasts just a few minutes, but Ben has to lay perfected still with his head held in a custom made mask. Today’s treatment also required an additional set of x-rays to verify that the positioning is correct before giving him his first exposure. The doctors requested that Ben not eat after 8 AM in case they had to sedate him for the treatment - which would add another hour or so to our daily time at the doctors. So now we’re asking a scared, hungry six year old on decadron (a steroid whose main side-effect is the munchies) to lay perfectly still. Melinda and I were both on pins and needles watching Ben on the monitor - hoping that he could endure.

He was so calm that the nurses thought he had fallen asleep. He told his nurse that “it wasn’t so long” as she walked him out of the treatment room. Then the decadron kicked in and we were all off for pancakes.